Through funds from the alcohol tax in Middlesboro, the Middlesboro Police Department is now able to provide every officer with their own taser as another tool to help them in their daily fight against crime.

“I think throughout the department this will actually lower officer injury,” Middlesboro Police Department Taser Instructor Nick Capps said. “I think it will lower officer injury for the fact that we will not be going hands on as much. It will reduce the risk of officers getting hurt to have the taser on their belt as a tool that has been provided through the department.”

The training is being completed through the entire squad to certify each officer to handle a taser.

“They are going through the process of how the taser works,” Capps explained. “All the new recruits took exposure to the taser so they know how the taser feels and what they are doing to somebody else if they have to pull the trigger on the taser.”

The department will be issuing tasers to each officer, and they will be certified to carry them at the beginning of the year.